Melbourne City, the premiership favourites, come into this off the back of an FFA Cup win over Derby rivals Melbourne Victory on Tuesday night. This will be their third game in seven days.

Adelaide hasn't had a good start to their premiership defence as they've secured just one point in the opening three rounds but go into this off consecutive losses.

DERBY HANGOVER
Melbourne City could go into this suffering a bit of a hangover from their FFA Cup win.

After thrashing Victory 4-1 a fortnight ago and looking brilliant, Melbourne City looked a completely different team as they failed to handle the attacking flair of the Glory.

Perth put three past the home side to run out 3-2 winners but looked the part again midweek when progressing to the FFA Cup Final.

Are they set for another let down after their Derby triumph? Will the three games in seven days hurt them?

STUMBLING
The Reds are well and truly on the backfoot already in 2016/17.

A Draw on opening day is the only shining light (if you can call it that) for Adelaide while they lost back-to-back games at home in the past fortnight. That is an incredible stat as they only lost twice at home all last season!

Making their task harder this week is the fact veteran attacker Henrique is out for six weeks. He joins teammates Marcelo Carrusca and Sergio Cirio as attacking options unavailable to coach Gui Amor.

HOW IT PANS OUT
Playing in front of their home crowd for the second straight week will be a big plus for Melbourne City.

Although they will be a little weary from the crowded schedule you cannot underestimate home ground advantage. Last season they won 10 of their 15 games at AAMI Park.

Adelaide appear up against it having scored one goal per game in the opening three rounds and conceding five during that period, including late ones against the Wanderers and Victory that ultimately led to defeat.

That is a worrying trend for Amor and the Adelaide defence but they will take heart in the fact they have beaten City comfortably in their last two games.

The Reds won 2-0 at this venue back in Round 27 last season before outclassing the free-flowing City 4-1 in their semi at Coopers Stadium.

It must be said that both sides, however, are vastly different to the ones that lined up in those games.

THE VERDICT
We cannot go past Melbourne City here. We are banking on the fact that they will learn from their loss to Perth last week and coupled with the Reds injury concerns, should prove to be too strong. An added bonus for them is the return of Socceroo Ivan Franjic to the team that beat Victory midweek.

TIP: Melbourne City

TOTAL GOALS OVER/UNDER 2.5: Go the Overs. These teams have traditionally put on a show with each other and average 3.8 goals per game in their last six clashes

1ST GOALSCORER: Fernando Brandan. He goes into this having scored in his last three games.